As Long As You're There
by TalysAlankil
Summary: After getting Calypso on Ogygia, Leo returns home a little late. Based on the prompt "Leo returns to camp half blood- only to find out that his friends are either dead, or way older."


When Festus took flight from Ogygia, Leo had about no attention to pay to the scenery below him. The lush island, the ocean surrounding it, the clouds and the winds—they were breathtaking, sure, but not as much as the girl pressed against Leo's back, her arms tied around his waist, whooping in delight the further they went from the island.

For a while, there was nothing in sight, not even with the Archimedes sphere's navigation system. Leo almost feared they'd be brought back to the island…then, suddenly, it was as if Festus flew through a veil. Invisible, thin, but indisputably _there_ , and once they were on the other side, the world was different. In a way, it was less saturated, and it took Leo a moment to realize that this was just _normal_ , and that he'd already grown to how Ogygia's magic made the island—and the pocket world around it—look.

"We're back!" Leo shouted, a challenge to the world around them. If Zeus decided to shoot him out of the sky right now, he felt like he could have survived the hit, channeled it through Festus, and redirected it at the lord of the sky himself.

He'd beaten Gaea, beaten death, and beaten Calypso's fate. A victory for Leo, through and through.

He glanced back, meeting Calypso's eyes. "Where should we go first?"

She shrugged. "Surprise me."

* * *

They traveled the world for a couple weeks, Leo showing her some of the best sights he could think of—and his childhood home, too. Part of him wanted to go back to his friends, let them know he was live, but he couldn't help but want to delay that for just a while. Keep Calypso to himself, not have to deal with responsibilities and explanations and everything that would follow his return. He was pretty sure a few of his friends would be angry at him, too.

And Calypso…she was worth making the others wait.

He hadn't been sure, at first, that she'd still love him—she'd spent millennia falling for heroes and hardening her heart, surely she would move on from Leo easily. But she hadn't, anymore than he had.

When they'd first landed—in Barcelona, the first city they'd flown over—she'd been the one to kiss him first. Once, and then again. "To make sure you know it's not _just_ gratitude," she'd said, grinning. He'd grinned back at her, shamelessly so, and he'd only stopped staring at her when the hems of his sleeves had started smoking. Apparently, he could still put things on fire if he didn't pay attention. That would have to be something he worked on, for the future, he'd thought—and then he'd immediately blushed at the thought.

After two weeks, Calypso was the one to suggest Leo should go home to his friends. She was right—Camp Half-Blood hadn't been his home for long, but it was his home nonetheless. And he wanted to see his friends again, damn the consequences. As long as Calypso remained by his side, he could take his friends yelling at him and/or smothering him.

* * *

They landed in a Camp Half-Blood busy as ever. And, in Leo's mind, one that looked pretty good so soon after a war. Actually, he was pretty sure there were more buildings than Leo remembered. Maybe one of the gods had actually decided to _do_ something for a change, and give them better living accommodations.

Demigods spotted Festus from far away, and cleared a circle around the dragon as he landed.

"Guess who's _back_?" Leo called out cheerfully as he jumped off Festus's back and helped Calypso follow.

Only stunned silence answered him, and he turned to the crowd. Of all the kids and teenagers, not a few face looked familiar—maybe a few, here or there, vaguely looked like someone Leo might have seen from afar at camp before.

"Man, the gods got _busy_." The joke fell out of his mouth without the energy he intended. Sure, he could imagine new faces would pop up, especially if the camps were now united, but that there wouldn't be a single one Leo recognized?

Calypso's hands clasped around his arm, and one glance at her was enough for Leo to know she'd figured out something was wrong too.

Most of the kids just stared, silently, until one of them stepped out of the crowd—a girl, much taller and bulkier than Leo was, who stole glances at Festus as often as she looked at Leo. "You're Leo Valdez, right?"

He nodded silently. "You guessed correctly," he said, trying to go back to his earlier cheerful tone—and failing miserably.

"I'm Sofia. Come on, we need to talk."

* * *

Leo and Calypso followed Sofia—who told Leo she was the counselor for Cabin Nine, though she didn't seem apologetic for taking Leo's place—to the Great House, which was mercifully identical to what Leo remembered. As was Chiron, when they stepped inside—though when he looked at Leo, his eyes widened as if he'd just seen a ghost.

Chiron and Calypso exchanged small talk—apparently they'd met before, thousands of years ago, when Calypso wasn't yet imprisoned on Ogygia—but eventually, that ran dry, and Leo hadn't said anything yet.

Finally, Chiron cleared his throat. "Leo…you probably noticed changes around here."

Leo nodded. "I did. There's no one I know at camp." A thought occurred to him—what if his pseudo-sacrifice hadn't been enough? What if, by cheating the prophecy, he'd ensured Gaea's victory instead? "Is everyone all right?" Sofia glanced at him with a grimace, but Leo ignored her. "Are my friends okay? How did the war end?"

"We won the Second Giant War, thanks in part to what you did. And your friends—well, they lived happy lives."

Leo stared at him for a moment. Chiron's use of the past tense hadn't escaped him. Nor had it escaped Calypso, who pressed herself closer to Leo. "I—you're not saying—"

"Leo, it's been sixty years since the Second Giant War."

His first instinct was to shout that this wasn't possible, that he'd been gone two weeks. Leo knew that Ogygia was located out of time, he'd experienced it once before, but surely it couldn't make _that_ kind of change?

But it made sense. The new kids, Sofia being counselor of their cabin—not a "new" counselor, just _the counselor_ —the new buildings…of course all this would have taken time. Years, even.

Leo closed his eyes, as if this could just be a nightmare he'd wake up from. But when he opened his eyes again, Chiron was still there, staring at him. "Is—is there no one left?" he asked, weakly.

Chiron nodded slowly. "Piper's in New Rome. She's—she's the only one. We can arrange you to go there, if you want."

"Please."

* * *

Chiron led Leo and Calypso to the Hades cabin, and though they were asked to wait outside, it was enough for Leo to see the changes that had taken place inside. Gone was the creepy, overly black décor; while it was still decked in darker colors, the place was bright enough that Leo could peek inside when Chiron went in.

He came back out with a boy, tall and lean and probably older than Leo was—well, physically speaking, anyway. His piercing dark eyes were the only trace that he was a child of Hades; if anything else, his tanned skin and messy blond hair reminded Leo of Will, the boy who'd first shown him around camp. He wondered what was the story behind that.

"This is Alex," Chiron said. "He's a legacy. He can shadow-travel with you to New Rome."

"Nice to meet you," Leo said, plastering a smile on his face. "I'm—"

"I know. My _nonno_ told me about you. The greatest mystery he never solved. I guess I'll tell him the next time we speak." Leo frowned, but Alex didn't offer any elaboration, and just held out his hand. "Are you ready to go?"

* * *

Leo didn't have a lot of experience with shadow-traveling, but none of them had been pleasant, and this one was no exception. Perhaps it was the feeling that this kid would try to get Leo to the Underworld, where he should probably have been if he hadn't been trapped in time for several decades.

But they reappeared in sunny New Rome, outside of a building Leo could only assume was a hospital, by the looks of it. "Your friend should be in there," Alex said. "Just ask around. Now, I've got a date, so if you need a ride back, it'll have to wait until tomorrow morning, okay?"

Leo stared after him, unwilling to tear his gaze—possibly because it would mean going in there and seeing Piper again after sixty years.

"We don't have to go in there if you don't want to," Calypso said. "Though I think you both deserve it—need it."

Leo sighed, but he nodded. If anyone could understand what he felt, it was probably Calypso, and she was right. "Let's just go," he said, and stepped inside the hospital.

* * *

It wasn't as bad as he'd expected—she wasn't in bed, IVs sticking out of her and keeping her a barely-living shell of herself. It looked like she just lived at the hospital, along with other old demigods and legacies, because they couldn't or wouldn't live on their own and this was the place where they could get someone to look after them.

If anything, Piper was just as lively as she'd ever been. When Leo entered her room, she tackled him, pinning him to the wall, her dagger—her Katoptris—pressed to his throat. Then, recognition shone in her eyes.

"Leo?" She lowered her dagger, her grip on Leo's clothes relaxing, and took a step back. "But—"

"Yeah. The magic of Ogygia. You never know when you really leave it."

There was a moment of immobile silence, before Piper pulled him into her arms, holding him as tightly as if she was the same age as when he'd last seen her. "At least you're alive. All those years ago, when you vanished—I couldn't believe it. I couldn't accept that the price for winning was _you_. None of us could."

Leo felt her shake with sobs, and pulled away from her. "No, don't cry, or I'll cry too." It was too late for that, though: tears were already streaming down his own face, uncontrolled and making no sense. This should have been a _happy_ reunion.

Piper noticed too, and chuckled as she dried her eyes. "So, who's this with you? Can you introduce us?" Her raised eyebrow and faint smirk were pretty clear that she'd guessed.

"This is Calypso. She's—"

"I'm his girlfriend." Calypso had cut him off—Leo wondered why. She didn't look jealous, so…what? Had she expected him not to know what to call her? Now that he thought about it, they'd never exactly put a label on it. But it had sounded pretty obvious.

Piper smiled, and hugged Calypso as well. "Nice to meet you. I'm glad he could find you. Even if it means—" She paused, and sighed. "I'm glad Leo could free you from that island. I wish you two the best."

"Don't say that," Leo said. Piper sounded like she was ready to die now. "You'll get to see it all. Why don't you tell me what I missed, instead?"


End file.
